Michael Hunter is a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has conducted extensive research on the history of Britain’s Royal Society as an institution, and among his many writings areBoyle: Between God and Science (2009) and The Royal Society and Its Fellows, 1660–1700: The Morphology of an Early Scientific Institution (enlarged ed., 1994; originally published 1982). Hunter is also the author of Britannica’s entry on the Royal Society. The prestigous organization, which now has more than 1,400 fellows, celebrates its 350th anniversary this month. In honor of this occasion, Britannica science editor Kara Rogers asked Hunter about the past, present, and future of the Society.

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Britannica: In 1660 a group of 12 men resolved to form “a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning.” What string of events led to the 1660 resolution, which resulted in the formation of the Society, and what purpose did these men envision the Society serving?

Hunter: Science had become increasingly popular in England in the middle decades of the 17th century. Among the most notable groups devoted to such study was one that met at Oxford, while a further circle was associated with the intelligencer, Samuel Hartlib. With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, many converged on London, including both former members of the Oxford group and virtuosi who had been in exile with the royal court. This evidently provided the stimulus to the resolution of November 1660 as quoted in the question. Up to point, what was visualized was a kind of club, but the concept of a ‘Colledge’ illustrates grander ambitions.

From the outset, the Society aspired to be national institution for the promotion of science; it hoped to survey all existing scientific knowledge and to reform it in a systematic way, not least by actually carrying out experiments at its meetings. In practice, the Society achieved less as a research institute than as a clearing house for knowledge produced elsewhere, which it discussed, validated, and disseminated: this effective role for the institution was discovered through a process of evolution that is in evidence in the Society’s early years, as I have shown in my article “The Great Experiment: The Royal Society,” published recently in History Today.

Britannica: Who were some of the prominent scientists in the Society’s establishment and how did they influence the Society’s early days?

Hunter: The founding 12 included the following:

Robert Boyle (1627–91), who provided an exemplar of the experimental method in his New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects, published earlier in 1660.

John Wilkins (1614–72), churchman and scientific popularizer, whose special interest was in the creation of a universal language and who had presided over the earlier Oxford group.

Francis Willughby (1635–72), a great naturalist who collaborated with John Ray (1627–1705); Ray continued their work after Willughby’s premature death.

John Winthrop (1606–76), the first colonial Fellow of the Society.

John Evelyn (1620–1706), diarist and virtuoso, who first aired the Society’s now-famous name in a book published in 1661.

Britannica: The Society’s date of formation is sometimes cited as November 28 and other times as November 30. Why is this and is there any consensus on which date is more accurate?

Hunter: The Society’s inaugural meeting took place on 28 November 1660. However, when the Society’s first charter was granted in 1662, its organizers seem to have wanted a ‘named’ day for their annual elections, so they chose St Andrew’s Day, 30 November. This is the date on which annual elections were held from 1663 onwards, when it was (perhaps slightly confusingly) referred to as the ‘anniversary election-day’.

Britannica: Could you describe one or two episodes in the Society’s history that influenced and perhaps changed the course of science in Britain and beyond?

Hunter: First, I would single out the Royal Society’s association with the exploration of the Pacific in the late 18th century. This was a key development of science in the service of the state.

Second, the reform of the Society in the 1830s, when ‘scientists’ took control at the expense of the more varied clientele of establishmentarian figures and amateurs who had dominated it in the 18th century—part of the increasing professionalisation of science in 19th-century Britain.

Britannica: The Kavli Royal Society International Centre opened this year. Can you explain a little about this new center and how it could influence the Society’s role in British and international science?

Hunter:Chicheley Hall is a major country house near Milton Keynes—one of the best examples of a Baroque mansion in England. The Royal Society is using it as a country venue for major scientific meetings, since it provides residential facilities that are not available at the Society’s London premises (though, when not in use in this way, it will also be available for weddings and corporate entertaining). It is to be hoped that one day there will be a celebration of the Society’s history there.